Thursday’s Headlines
- Reason number 4,812 why AOC is awesome: New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants to force municipalities to reduce parking and encourage going carless by withholding federal transportation money from anyplace that requires on-site parking at housing developments. (Sightline)
- The return on investment for creating a walking and biking transportation network could be as high as $138 billion nationwide, according to a Rails-to-Trails Conservancy study. Shifting modes would result in less congestion, reduce congestion and improve health.
- Uber and Lyft skipped a hearing before a House of Representatives committee investigating issues in the ride-hailing industry. (Reuters)
- After years of predictions that car-sharing and ride-hailing companies would end the need for privately owned cars, car ownership is up over the past decade, probably because the recession is over and gas prices are low (Wired). In Denver, car-share company Car2Go is pulling out, which Denverite expects to increase congestion as users either buy personal vehicles or turn to Uber and Lyft.
- File under: Oh really? Scooter riders who ride on the sidewalk do it because they’re afraid of cars (Salt Lake Tribune). In related news, bike riders are eschewing pavement altogether, instead migrating to dirt trails (Outside)
- A solution to sidewalk clutter? San Francisco startup Tortoise is developing a scooter that can drive itself to an appropriate parking location (Axios). As longtime Georgia bike advocate Jason Perry says on Twitter, they can’t possibly drive themselves any worse than humans do.
- Washington, D.C. is creating more separated bike lanes and installing speed bumps to slow down drivers. (WTOP)
- Austin’s Capital Metro is considering creating five new bus rapid transit lines. Ridership on existing BRT is up 14 percent. (Monitor)
- Lack of trust in local government could endanger a transit tax in the metro Atlanta county of DeKalb. (Saporta Report)
- The mother of a Cincinnati girl who was killed by a hit-and-run driver says she won’t rest until the city achieves Vision Zero. (WCPO)
- For the first time in decades, more University of Arkansas students, faculty and staff are walking, biking or taking transit to campus instead of driving.
- New Jersey is getting four nice new transit stations where, as Bloomberg cheekily notes, riders can wait out long and frequent delays.
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